Chapter 7. Creating Christmas Light Effects
In the previous chapter, we were able to control an irrigation system based on the gathered sensorial data. In this chapter, we'll create a different type of project. Using a digitally-addressable LED strip and the YouTube IFrame Player API, we'll create our own Christmas lighting animations with music videos and light effects. We'll use the Socket.IO real-time engine to control all the animations from a web page that can be used from a mobile device's web browser. You'll learn how to control an LED strip, create basic light animations, and play music videos along with them.
In this chapter, we'll learn:
- Wiring and controlling an LPD8806 LED strip
- Building simple asynchronous LED animations
- Creating a basic control page
- Using the YouTube IFrame API to control a video playlist
- Coordinating animations using the Socket.IO real-time engine
